16-bit digital signal controller targets cost-sensitive apps

Tempe, Ariz  Freescale Semiconductor says the price/performance and peripheral capability of its new 56F8000 series of digital signal controllers (DSC) address motor control for appliances, as well as digital power conversion. Additional applications include smart sensing, lighting control and instrumentation, according to the company.

The 16-bit DSCs employ a single core architecture that combines the programming ease of a microcontroller (MCU) with the signal processing power and efficiency of a digital signal processor (DSP).

The new series is based on Freescale's 56800/E digital signal controller core with 32 million instructions per second (MIPS) and single-cycle multiply accumulate (MAC) execution. Among the features of the controllers are the 96 MHz PWM with programmable fault capability, 12-bit ADC with a 1.125 _second conversion rate, ADC/PWM synchronization, 16 KByte program flash memory and 4 KByte program/data RAM. There is also a tunable relaxation oscillator, four 16-bit timers, computer operating properly (COP), serial peripheral interface (SPI), serial communications interface (SCI), up to 26 general purpose input output (GPIO) and the Inter-IC bus (I2C).

Power consumption is managed through various techniques, including sophisticated control of clocking to all major peripherals, auto standby mode for the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and low-frequency standby mode for the overall chip.

The company provides an out-of-the-box development experience with cost-effective boards, production-worthy code via software libraries and the CodeWarrior development environment. The CodeWarrior Development Studio for the 56800/E family of products includes the Unis Processor Expert autocode generator. It is designed to dramatically reduce development time, improve code quality and speed time to market. It also eases the process of migrating legacy code between different platforms.

The CodeWarrior Development Studio for Freescale 56800/E Special Edition (with Processor Expert) that supports the new 56F8000 series is included in the price of development board kit, which starts at a suggested retail price of $65 (USD). In addition, as a special launch promotion, Freescale is offering a USB TAP host target interface control tool normally available at a suggested price of $250 for $99 (USD), while supplies last. The 56F8000 devices are available for a suggested retail price of $2.99 (USD) in 10,000-unit quantities.

For more information about Freescale products and available services and support, visit www.freescale.com